Political News and Commentary from the Right

Bill Smith: It is with deep sadness, that I write and ask the readers of “America, You Asked For It” and for others to pray for our editor, John Allison and his wife Janice. They have lost their precious 17-year old daughter, Amanda, in a tragic shooting Saturday night.

I will not addressing the details of the shooting except to state that the young man who killed Amanda is in custody. Also, please pray for the Allison extended family, their friends, and for Amanda’s school classmates at Vilonia High School where John Allison was also a math teacher.

It would be fruitless for me to share more at this time. This is a horrible tragedy and a senseless loss for the family and friends.

Many know John as the creator, writer and editor of this site. He was also a father, a high school teacher, a local conservative activist, and an ex-Marine who loves his God, his family and his country.

As my friend, my heart breaks for John and Janice’s loss. No platitudes or further words will do.

Obamanomics. Spend. Spend. Spend. And spend some more. Then remove any hint of personal accountability for those who acted irresponsibly. Make unemployment benefits permanent. Pay people to trade in good, working used cars for cars they can’t afford, then scrap the good, working used cars. Bailout failed companies with government funds, allowing them to continue operating under the policies that made them fail in the first place. Force banks and mortgage houses to renegotiate with customers who bought more home than they could afford. Push for a tax on carbon emissions that will push costs higher for business and industry, who will pass those costs on to consumers. Spend $1 trillion to put us on a path to government-run health care that will cost us more, treat us less, and make sure we die younger.

There’s more, but you get the picture.

So what’s it done for us?

The infamous $875 billion stimulus that President Obama promised would quickly revive the economy, save us from reaching the unthinkable 8% unemployment level did neither. Our economy continues to languish while prices for essential goods skyrocket and unemployment hovers closer to 10% than the 8% level we were promised would never be reached if the President’s spending spree were approved.

Last week, the day before the government released their December unemployment numbers, Gallup released results from its unemployment survey. According to the private polling firm, 9.6% of Americans in the labor market could not find work. The next day, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its official report putting the number at 9.4%. I’d guess the real number to split the two, but they are both a far cry from the President’s promised 8% cap if let him spend like a drunken sailor back in February 2009.

Because the Gallup unemployment measure is not seasonally adjusted, it tends to more accurately reflect what is actually taking place in the U.S. job market — and may not agree with the government’s estimate that is seasonally adjusted. Further, Gallup’s data tend to be more up-to-date than the government’s because Gallup polls on the unemployment situation continuously. Combined, seasonal adjustments and timing differences likely explain much of the disparity between Gallup’s measures of underemployment and unemployment, compared with those reported by others.

Perhaps even more damning though, is the broader underemployment index which includes the unemployed counted above and those who are employed part-time but want full-time jobs. Gallup tagged this number at 19% for December, up from 17.2% at the end of November. That’s almost 1 in 5 American workers who want a full-time job and can’t find one. And it’s increasing at an alarming rate!

The President’s inability to stimulate the economy and jump start job creation is having detrimental effects on other parts of the economy as well.

One of the most often mentioned planks in Obama’s 2008 Presidential platform was to help holders of upside-down mortgages hold onto their homes. While the massive influx of government cash into programs such as Obama’s Making Home Affordable did forestall foreclosure for some, the programs turned out to be little more than a bandaid on a gaping wound, unable to stop the bleeding for good.

Home values continue to plummet and have now crashed worse than during the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1933, home prices fell by 25.9%. It was reported just this month that homes are now worth 26% less than in 2006. So Obama’s great spending spree didn’t buoy the value of most families’ single largest investment, nor did it stop the wave of foreclosures. Experts are now anticipating 1 million homes to be foreclosed on this year!

Obamanomics…the idea that excessive government spending can generate growth and produce wealth…is a farce.

The federal reserve has for a long time held short term interest rates near zero in an effort to ignite the engine of the US economy. Late last year, the Federal Reserve began to buy $600 billion in US treasuries, a sort of second stimulus plan, or throwing good money after bad in the opinion of many. As Obama’s stimulus and bailouts sprang to life in early 2009, Dick Morris reported the money supply in the US had increased by 271% in just 5 months, a situation he predicted would eventually result in hyperinflation. Morris’ claims drew criticism claiming his arguments were baseless, his facts wrong and based on partisan ideology. But this week we saw reports of skyrocketing food and energy prices.

Everyone who goes to the grocery store, pays an electric bill, or fills their tank with gas already knew this, but the government numbers on inflation intentionally exclude food and energy prices. Convenient for an administration that is intentionally saddling energy companies and food producers with crippling costs to confront new federal regulation. The Obama administration tactics are intended to force the costs of traditional food and energy up high enough to make prices of his preferred green energy and “healthy” foods products competitive. He is intentionally forcing up the prices of goods and services Americans buy in an attempt to get them to buy products produced by his political friends and supporters.

As oil prices close in on $100 per barrel, and a gallon of gas surges over 3 dollars, the President shrugs his shoulders and leaves Americans to just deal with it. Obama stands by his executive order to halt offshore drilling, decreasing the oil supply and helping drive prices up. It’s okay with our President if we pay more. He doesn’t want us burning oil or driving as much anyway.

Rising prices and Americans having to tighten our belts may not be the worst thing either. The United States was warned that its AAA credit rating is in danger by two major credit rating agencies. Moody’s warned, “that the U.S. will need to reverse the expansion of its debt if it hopes to keep its ‘AAA’ rating.” While Standard & Poor said, “the firm couldn’t rule out lowering the outlook for the U.S. rating in the future.” Loss of the AAA rating would reduce demand for US treasuries, which will result in higher financing costs to fund government operations.

What this all boils down to is that nothing Obama has done has really helped anything at all. Some of his programs have kicked the problems down the road a few months, which was likely the intent all the time. But the scope of his Socialist programs, pushed as if by a bulldozer through the Democrat-dominated Congress that was voted out in November of last year, have inflicted more damage on our economic system than he and his Socialist czars thought probable.

Rather than fix what was wrong, his overspending, crippling regulations, and interference with the free market have done more to restrain the economy than they have to fix it.

The national debt topped $14,000,000,000,000 (that’s FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS) in recent days, a 40% increase in the two years Obama has been in office. You, I, and our children will bear the burden of his big-government ideals that have been forced on us these past two years.

We’ve had enough Hope & Change, it’s time to change it back…while it might still be possible.

Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and many other conservative icons have been accused by the left-wing politicians and so-called journalists of inciting the murderous rampage of an insane (though not certified because it appears nobody wanted to hurt his feelings) man.

Here is Sarah Palin’s response. You can also read the text of her response here.

“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”–President Ronald Reagan

Jared Lee Loughner, a disturbed and deranged young man with no political motive, savagely attacked Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and those who waited to speak with her. He killed in cold blood, but was motivated by nothing outside the demons in his own head. He is responsible for the senseless tragedy. He alone.

I continue to pray for the families of the lost and for the injured, and for all those affected by Loughner’s rampage, and encourage you to do likewise.

…that is, every liberal college student who has worked hard in school and has a good GPA.

This was sent to me by a conservative friend. I’ve seen other variations before, but it’s a good read and deserves to be spread around. Send it to every liberal college student who works hard, goes to class, and has the GPA that comes with a good work ethic.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words; redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.

The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends, because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked , “How is your friend Audrey doing?’ She replied, ‘ Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She Is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”

Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA, and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.” The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the conservative movement.”

Maybe that will cause some real critical thinking in the minds of some liberal college students.

After publishing the initial story of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the murder of the 6 who died, and the other 12 injured, I have intentionally avoided reporting on the story because I do not want to exploit the deaths of the victims. Many in the media and on the left, however, apparently have no qualms with making political hay out of this senseless tragedy.

Even with the Herculean effort the left has put into labeling Jared Loughner some sort of Tea Party fanatic, roused to anger by Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann metaphors, no evidence to back up these claims has surfaced. Even the Pima County Sheriff of 30 years blamed conservatives at a news conference in the early hours of the investigation, without any evidence to support his claim. The simple fact appears to be that Loughner was nothing more than a certified nut job! Some who knew him even called him a “left-wing pothead.”

Rather than write my own article on this deranged killer, the destruction he has caused, or the political reactionaries who seek to further their individual agendas in the wake of this shooting, I’ll point you to Dick Morris’ latest column–“There are no politics in murder.”

The conventional wisdom of the media establishment that strident and outspoken political debate catalyzes violence is an absurdity! Telling people to “kill pigs” as the sixties radicals did, in fact, encouraged violence. But vigorous political debate and strongly or even passionately held views have nothing whatever to do with the decision of some nut to kill a Congressman or a president.

Fantasies about Jodie Foster, instructions from Son of Sam, or delusions of omnipotence all can cause violence, but heated political debate doesn’t. To stigmatize strongly articulated opinions on the left or the right and blame them for the insane attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is outrageous.

Oklahoma City was an act of political terror, incited by resentment against federal tactics at Waco. It was not some speech that ignited Timothy McVeigh but a massive act of violence.

Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and numerous others were shot outside a Safeway grocery store in Tucson today. The shooting claimed the life of US District Judge John Roll and 5 others attending the “Congress on Your Corner” event. Rep. Giffords is expected to fully recover according to latest reports.

The Washington Post has reported the assailant was one Jared Loughner, a 22-year-old who police think may be a military veteran.

The man was identified as Jared Loughner, who appears to have left a trail of Internet postings, including some that express convoluted observations about government.

I’m not sure if this is him, but a Google search for “Jared Loughner” located the following video titled “Introduction: Jared Loughner”. It most certainly expresses “convoluted observations about government.

This video was posted last month and opens with “My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner”. It then rambles about “dreamers”, making “new currency”, and other mostly incoherent thoughts. However, one screen contains the following remarks in which Loughner claims to be a “United States Military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix.” MEPS is the acronym for military processing centers for recruits entering the service. According to this, if this is the same Jared Loughner arrested in Tucson today, Loughner may not yet have entered the service.

Regardless, I would like to make some things perfectly clear. While many articles appear on this blog that are extremely critical of Democrat lawmakers and other politicians, neither I nor any other author on this blog approves or condones acts such as this. We are committed to bringing more conservatives to Congress and other government offices through peaceful means at the ballot box. We have never, and will never advocate cowardly attacks of violence against any politician.

I am praying for Rep. Giffords’ complete recovery, I am praying for those killed and the others wounded, and I am praying for all of their families. May God bring them some sort of peace in this tragedy and ease their suffering.

Seriously? Is there anything they won’t blame the former President for? Can they accept responsibility for anything at all?

In the video below, Pelosi tells CNN’s John King Democrats would have lost Congress even if they had not rammed every left-wing, pinko, Communist policy down the throats of an electorate that kicked and screamed the entire time. EVERYONE knew American voters HATED almost every plank in the platform Pelosi, Reid, and Obama lied and cheated to pass through Congress in the past two years!

Pelosi is either too conceited, or too stupid, to accurately interpret November’s election results. So let’s make it real simple for her…

It wasn’t Bush’s fault. It was the fault of every Democrat politician who thought the American people were too dumb to read the overreaching legislation they were passing. It was the fault of every Democrat politician who was too stupid to read the overreaching legislation they were passing. It was the fault of every Democrat politician who voted for the overreaching legislation they were passing even though they knew their constituents wanted to vote against it. It was the fault of every Democrat politician who believed Obama had cast some special spell over the American people that would make them vote to reelect legislators who stood for everything their constituents stood against.

All of which can be summed up simply by saying, “It was the Democrats’ fault they lost!”

The presidential campaign season for 2012 has begun, and I haven’t seen Herman Cain listed on the MSM lists of potential Republican candidates, but he has already formed an exploratory committee. “He will formally announce his candidacy in a few months,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The paper also reports Cain says the only thing that will keep him from declaring is death.

So who is Herman Cain?

Some might remember him from his 2004 run for the US Senate in Georgia, but that’s the extent of his experience as a politician. He’s currently a conservative talk radio host in Atlanta and a Fox Business News commentator. Cain is president and CEO of The New Voice, Inc., a consulting company he created in the midst of a career as a successful businessman. And now he wants to be President of the United States. Truth is, he might be just what America needs.

Many, including yours truly, think our country is headed for an economic meltdown at the hands of out-of-control government spending and record deficits. We need someone who knows how take the helm, right a listing ship, and get her back on course. Cain has a lot of executive experience that indicates he could be just the doctor our ailing country needs.

According to his online biography, Cain has turned more than one floundering organization around. He worked making burgers for Pillsbury’s Burger King, and after 9 months became the manager of 400 restaurants in the company’s worst performing region, Philadelphia. Within 3 years, Cain had turned things around and the region prided itself as the company’s best with a new reputation of excellence.

Later, Pillsbury appointed Cain as president of it’s Godfather’s Pizza chain at a time when the brand was in dire financial straits. It took the financially savvy Cain only 14 months to return the chain to profitability.

He has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science. Cain has served on several boards of directors as both a member and chairman, including the boards of the National Restaurant Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

But it takes more than financial savvy and business sense to win the White House. It takes charisma and an ability to fire up a crowd. Remember the crowds and the rallies of Obama supporters from 2008. It takes someone who can deliver a great speech.

Well, Cain has that too. Dr. Bill Smith, editor of the ARRA News Service and contributing author to this blog, writes “when you see Herman with people, he electrifies them and connects and excites them and moves their reasoning along to the right conclusions. I have noted that people regardless of age, race or sex seem to mentally adopt him as a wise father figure.” Here’s his address to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans last year.

Of course, it might be that more than a lot of experience as a successful businessman and a great speaking ability may not be enough either. Most important of all supporters. Can Herman Cain get an army of supporters behind him?

The American Spectator notes that Cain already won an online poll at the conservative blog, Red State. The article notes Cain’s showing in the non-scientific poll “demonstrated the Georgia businessman’s appeal to the conservative grassroots.” It’s also being reported that Cain has already secured the support of at least one veteran Republican operative in the early primary state of New Hampshire. The video above leads one to believe he could easily win the support of Republican activists like those who attended SRLC last year.

Cain has also attracted quite a following through his involvement with the Tea Party. Many would argue it was these grassroots activists, roused to action by Democrats’ forcing their unwanted agenda on the American people, who were responsible for Republicans’ sweeping election victories last November. Politics Daily mentioned his Tea Party credentials months ago in an article identifying Cain as a possible presidential contender in 2012. “He was the featured speaker at a recent Tea Party held in Des Moines, Iowa, he has already lined up the support of Joe the Plumber,” wrote columnist Matt Lewis.

Proven executive experience, support within the Republican Party, an incredible ability to motivate crowds with moving speeches, and approval of Tea Party activists. That seems like a pretty good pad from which to launch a campaign.

It won’t take long for that number to reach the $14.3 Trillion “Debt Ceiling,” raised by Democrats in Congress and President Obama early last year to satisfy–temporarily–their unquenchable thirst to spend our money!

The debt continued to rise under George W. Bush, but has skyrocketed under Obama. Since taking office, the amount you, I, and every other American owes has increased 40%! That’s a 40% increase in only two years! Thanks to CBS (You won’t hear that very often here!) for the following graphic that shows the unbelievable increase in US government red ink.

Now they want even more! Democrats are demanding Republicans in Congress raise the debt ceiling, but Republicans have promised to draw a line in the sand–saying they will not vote to raise it unless a plan is put in place to “significantly reduce federal spending and unfunded government liabilities on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare,” according to the CBS article.

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, calls the Republican demands for real spending cuts, “playing chicken with the debt ceiling.” Goolsbee accurately points out that failure to raise the debt ceiling will cause the US government to default on its obligations–if it continues to spend more money than it takes in.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a Tea Party Republican, staunchly opposes raising the ceiling. “Instead of raising the debt ceiling and giving ourselves an excuse to delay the inevitable, let’s start working on solutions,” she said in a November press release following last year’s mid-term election. She calls on Congress to “tighten the country’s purse strings as we work to put our country back on track.” Bachman says “cuts have to be made” because our children’s future is at stake. “We aren’t going to find financial stability by allowing ourselves to fall further down the rabbit hole,” the Congresswoman points out.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is not ruling out an increase, but promised to block it unless meaningful spending cuts are tied to any increase, according to the Daily Caller. Coburn says he has a list of $350 billion in spending cuts that he wants to see before he will vote for a debt ceiling increase. Coburn called $350 billion “a good starting point,” but also stated he believes it is possible to cut enough that raising the debt ceiling won’t be necessary.

‘The American people think the budget ought to be balanced, even taking hard choices, even with some personal sacrifice on their part,” Coburn said. “So I don’t think it’s impossible for us to cut enough government spending with which we don’t have to raise the debt limit. I think we can do that.”

One thing is certain. We cannot afford to keep doing business as usual. It’s time to cut government spending!

Florida, the warm-weather getaway for many snowbirds from up north, recorded its coldest December ever to close out 2010. Historic winter storms blanketed much of the US and Europe, shutting down airports from New York to Moscow, stranding untold numbers of holiday travelers. You can bet there weren’t very many with Global Warming on their mind.

But President Obama’s administration is still looking to use the fallacious crisis to seize even more control of our daily lives. EPA officials, with teeth chattering as they make their way to work through the bitter cold, “prepares regulations that would force companies to get permits to release greenhouse gases” according to a recent Fox News article.

Of course it’s not just last month’s brutal cold snap that debunks the long-running arguments of Global Warming alarmists like Al Gore and Michael Moore. The scientists who have collected hundreds of billions of dollars in government research grants did more damage to their cause last year than any cold snap could. That’s when hackers released emails stolen from the climate so-called-scientists who’ve perpetrated this massive fraud for decades. The emails revealed manipulation or omission of data that called their hypotheses into question.

Reasonable people recognized that Global Warming was a sham. But the tantalizing promise of rewards from continuing the crisis, in the form of wealth and power, kept the alarmists and their bureaucrat buddies on course. Rather than hang their heads in shame, they came up with a new name for the supposed warming that resulted in cooler temperatures. They chose the name “Climate Change” to replace the no longer convincing “Global Warming.” Brilliant!

The new name could be applied to ANY turn in the weather. A cold snap? The result of “Climate Change!” A warm front? “Climate Change” caused it! Strong winds? Let’s blame them on “Climate Change!” Tornadoes in Kansas? “Climate Change” to blame! Earthquakes and mudslides in California? “Climate Change” did it! We could go on, but you get the idea.

The EPA even changed its phraseology to the more flexible “Climate Change” and abandoned the now unpopular (and debunked) “Global Warming.” But the agencies arguments to address “Climate Change” are the exact same arguments they used to deal with “Global Warming!”

The agency’s web page devoted to “Climate Change” is fronted by flipping through the following phrases, all backed by photos intended to bolster their argument that the Earth is warming…

“Glaciers around the world are shrinking, and the amount of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has decreased since the 1970s.”

“Average sea level worldwide is projected to rise up to two feet by the end of this century. This rise would eliminate approximately 10,000 square miles of land in the United States.”

“Hurricanes in the Atlantic are likely to become more intense as ocean temperatures rise.”

“As temperatures rise, some migratory birds are spending the winter an average of 35 miles further north than they did 40 years ago.”

“From heat waves to melting glaciers, the signs of a changing planet are documented in a new EPA report presenting 24 indicators of climate change.”

The left-wing control freaks that used Global Warming as an argument for overreaching regulatory power grabs by government agencies just won’t give up, even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence their conjectures are wrong!

One thing’s sure, new regulations WILL increase costs for business and industry and those costs WILL be passed on to consumers. That’s why Obama couldn’t pass the same policies legislatively, even with huge Democrat majorities in the House and Senate.

This is a fight that needs to be taken up by the new GOP members elected to Congress! And it needs to be taken up immediately. Left-wing, liberal, Democrat policies have already raised the cost of nearly every necessity. It needs to stop now.

Those snowbirds that come to Florida to escape the cold up north would probably be grateful for a little Global Warming right now.